If the prophet had had a humanoid face, its expression would have been very somber indeed.  As it was, he was in his natural form.  The Filarini would have said his form was fish-like.  He did look like a fish in some respects, after all.  No one could blame them for saying his race looked like fish in their natural forms.  Of course, no fish on their planet had rainbow swirl-patterns in their scales.  Or even displayed the slightest hint of intelligence, for that matter.  But, no matter.  He and his brethren cared little for what the Filarini or anyone else thought of them.  There were far more important matters at hand.

He let his golden eyes roam over his companions, the rest of the Council of Prophets of Equatha.  None of them had names.  Prophets were never given names.  The prophet to his left released air from her gills in frustration.  She, he had always thought of her as a she due to her melodic voice though none of the prophets truly had a gender, flicked her tail and carried on with their telepathic conversation.

“Normally I would agree that the capture of the Filarini king and queen has no bearing on our world, especially with the Treaty in place.  However, we have all seen where the prophecies are leading, and we cannot allow it to take place.  We must do something to prevent it.”

The prophet thought back to his own conversation with the queen in question.  As he was speaking to her, his doubt that she was the one from the prophecy had disappeared completely.  There was no question that Kari was the queen from the prophecy.  All the signs pointed to it.  He just wished he could have been wrong.  For her sake and his own. 

The others seemed to weigh their fellow prophet’s words against their own visions of the future.  There were twelve prophets on the Council, each serving a ten-year term.  This was only his second year on the Council, after rotating in from his previous duty as a teacher for the two younger prophets.  Someone else served in that role, now.  On Equatha, only one or two prophets were born in a generation.  Luckily, they lived far longer than the rest of the population.  The Equathian lifespan in general was about fifty years.  Prophets had been known to live up to three hundred years.  Of course, the trade-off was that prophets had no gender, couldn’t reproduce, and were forced to spend their long years in virtual solitude with only other prophets to speak with.  Not to mention, the fact that seeing the future was a tricky business with a very high risk of going mad.  In fact, most prophets spent their latter years in a state of utter mindlessness.  He hadn’t gone mad, yet.  Thankfully.

“Alright.  What does the Council propose we do?”  He was brought out of his musings by the prophet directly across the circle from him. 

“Interfere.”  As he spoke, the Council fixed their gazes on him as one.  No Council had ever interfered in a major prophecy before.  No Council had ever wanted to risk it. 

As he thought, the vast majority of the Council immediately raved about the horrifying consequences of interfering in a major prophecy.  He reminded them that no one had ever done it before. 

“We must do something.  Nothing could be worse than what’s coming if we don’t.  You all know.  You’ve seen it.”  Silence fell among the prophets.  One by one they nodded their fish-like heads.  It was time to take prophecy into their own hands, figuratively of course.  They didn’t really have hands. 

Yunho felt the bond in the back of his mind for what had to have been the twentieth time that hour.  He could sense Kari’s nervousness, but also her joy at having the bond completed.  But more than that, he felt full.  He felt whole for the first time since Kari was taken.  It was like there had been a hole in his soul that the bond filled in.  Now, all he had to do was get Kari back.  Easier said than done.

In the distance, he felt Kari’s fear grow and wondered what was happening to her.  He knew where she was and how she felt, but not what was going on around her or what she was thinking.  He prayed she was okay. 

“Yunho.”  Reina stuck her head in his room.  “The Tu ship is in sight.  The captain said you could come to the bridge if you want.” 

He jumped off his bed (where he had been laying fully clothed, thinking about Kari) and very nearly ran to the door.   He followed her and their Elanari to the bridge, trying not to look at the shifting walls, floor and ceiling.  He really didn’t want to get sick when they were this close to getting Kari back.  As they walked into the bridge, he felt something tugging at the bond and Kari’s fear spiked again.  He felt pain resonate down the bond.  His anger flashed.  These Tu were hurting Kari!  He had to do something.  But what?  He was stuck on the Elanari ship and that was still a good 100,000 kilometers away from the Tu. 

The Elanari captain turned her gaze towards them.  “We are close, now.  Soon, we will have what the Tu stole from us.”  Something about her eyes made Yunho cringe inside.  She truly thought that he and Kari were just Elanari property.  Did she only agree to help because she was upset that the Tu had the audacity to steal the Elanari’s property?  Did they think they were the only intelligent life forms in the galaxy?  He shoved his anger down as pain shot through the bond again.  Kari needed help right away, and he would accept whatever help he could.  All that mattered was that he got her back safely.  “Hmm.  Something is wrong.”

Yunho looked up at her, forgetting for the moment that she wasn’t wearing any clothes.  “What?”

The captain shook her head.  “I sense something a little off.  What could it be?”  She seemed to have forgotten she was talking to property for the moment, but Yunho hardly cared.  Pain still shot down the bond at regular intervals.  And it was getting worse.  They were closer now, only 50,000 kilometers away.

“Come to a stop.  We’re close enough.  Raise shields and charge weapons.  I want to be ready in case they fire on us.”  Yunho watched with only half-hearted interest as the color of the bridge changed from rainbow to red and all extraneous movement on the part of the crew ceased.  Reina nudged his arm.

“What’s wrong with your magic?  It feels like it’s being drained from you.”  She spoke in a low voice so as to not distract the Elanari from their duties.  He shook his head.  He didn’t know what was wrong, nor did he really care.  All that mattered was that Kari needed his help now and he was stuck on the wrong ship to give it.  The bond pulled at him, making him feel as if were stretched between two people pulling at him with all their might in opposite directions.  It was beginning to be really painful.  Something was going to have to give, and soon. 

“Yunho, what’s wrong?  You look like you’re in pain.  Maybe you should sit down.”  Reina led him over to a ledge and sat him down.  He was too distracted by the bond and the pain to argue.  He felt her try to probe him with her magic, but something blocked it.  The room spun and lights started flashing before his eyes.  If he hadn’t already been seated he would have fallen over.  His vision began to fade in and out, as if he was about to pass out.  He vaguely heard Reina call for help from the Elanari.  One of them came over and looked in Yunho’s face, then called for the captain.  By the time she came to investigate, Yunho out completely.

He awoke immediately, but in a very unfamiliar place.  Yunho quickly took stock of his situation.  He was on what looked like the kind of bridge he imagined when he thought of a starship, but it was filled with many very pale, dark-haired and dark-eyed people all staring at him with various degrees of shock on their faces.  The feeling of being pulled in two different directions was gone, and his magic felt fine again.  The main thing he noticed, though, was the fact that Kari was extremely close by.  She was somewhere on this deck of the starship.  How was that possible?  Had they already rescued her?  But who were the people on the bridge?  Had he been captured?  These must’ve been the infamous Tu that had taken Kari.   But, how had they managed to take him right out from under the noses of the Elanari?  A quick look at the hologram in the center of the bridge showed him the position of the Elanari ship in relation to the Tu’s.  They were still the same distance away. 

One of the Tu ran to what looked like elevator doors on one side of the bridge and pressed a button on the control panel next to them.  They opened to reveal a dimly lit room beyond.  Yunho’s feeling of closeness to Kari increased along with the pain he knew she was enduring.  She had to be in that room.  The doors shut after a Tu, dressed in clean-cut, expensive looking military garb, came out and stared at him with a curious expression.  This man looked like he was used to being obeyed.  That only made Yunho dislike him.  The man’s dark eyes bored into Yunho’s for a full minute before he turned to the crewmember beside him. 

“Take him to the brig.  Make sure he doesn’t use his magic against anyone.”  The crewman gave a salute and pulled Yunho to his feet, roughly.  Something pressed against his back and the crewman whispered in his ear.

“Try anything funny and I’ll use this.  Don’t think I won’t.  The general doesn’t need you alive, so I’d be on my best behavior if I were you.”

Yunho tried to keep track of the route his guard took to the brig, but being knocked over the head every so often with whatever gun-type device the man had didn’t lend itself well to remembering directions.  After what seemed like an eternity, they entered a room with several large, deep indentions in the walls.  The indentions must’ve been the Tu’s version of jail cells, because his guard shoved him into one and pressed a button on the wall next to the cell.  Yunho didn’t see anything, but he heard a crackling noise, like static electricity coming from the opening into the room.  There must’ve been some sort of force field there to keep him from escaping. 

“I wouldn’t touch the barrier if you value your sanity.  Enjoy your time with us.”  The guard walked out of the room without turning on any lights, leaving Yunho in the dark and utterly alone.